Proteus WMS explains how to improve and grow your business

Warehouses and distribution centres are at the core of the logistics industry, providing control, efficiency and rapidity of goods moving through the network. A successful warehouse will plan, implement and control the efficient flow for the storage and distribution of goods, which will be enhanced by using a modern warehouse management system (WMS).

In today’s ever-changing, challenging and demanding environment it is difficult to improve on the core competencies of a warehouse operation without having flexibility. You will not be able to meet the demands of your customers, or have the ability to proactively exceed and improve customer expectations. Service will be reduced and will not fit your business model needs. This is where a "best of breed" warehouse management system, such as Proteus WMS, can give you the opportunity to provide value added capabilities to your business and colleagues, to differentiate yourselves from your competitors and make yourselves indispensable to your customers by providing the service they expect.

So what is a recipe?

Recipes are set of instructions that can be simplified into five components:

• What will be the result or effect that you intend or desire to have?
• Describe the process or technique required to complete the recipe with the desired results
• Do the expected results and probable outcomes meet your business needs?
• Identify the achievable timescales to complete the recipe, plan resource and budget for the time involved.
• What capabilities are needed to successfully bring the recipe to conclusion, yielding the desired result?

What ingredients will you need?

You can complete a WMS recipe and still not attain the desired results, due to the quality of the ingredients used. The highest and freshest quality ingredients will be constrained by the allocated budget set by the business. The key to any recipe is the ability to blend ingredients that complement each other to produce the final result, and setting the right level of investment suited to your business, and senior management sponsorship.

The purpose

As a business you will need to ask yourself “Why implement a WMS?”

A WMS will be implemented for various reasons, but the prime reason is financial. Companies can no longer afford to have a culture of a “wait and see” due to the initial costs of implementing a WMS, but should rather look at the financial benefits the WMS will earn. For the financial rewards to be reaped a WMS must be able to provide better, faster, more accurate data in order to reduce inventories, optimising the use of warehouse space and maximising the efficiency of your warehouse operation.

This will save money, increase your service levels and in turn give the business the ability to earn more revenue and grow.

The recipe for a successful WMS implementation

Ingredients

• Take one WMS
• Add an application or technical consultant
• Add a customer project champion
• Add internal IT capacity
• Blend together with senior management support

Cooking Time

• Set realistic timescales
• Check progress regularly
• Test the system
• Wait for all the processes to be completed

Consume then digest the results

• Increased throughput
• Raised accuracy levels
• Cyclical automatic stock takes
• Automatic reporting
• Less staff to handle the same or increased throughput
• ROI achieved within 12-18 months

To see how Proteus WMS can help grow your business give us a call or send us an email.